The Public Utility Commission Tuesday issued a Secretarial Letter extending the deadline to October 20 for commenting on its proposed policy statement inviting utilities to explore alternative ratemaking methodologies in distribution base rate proceedings.

The original deadline was August 22 as published in a notice in the June 23 PA Bulletin.

The goal of alternative ratemaking is to provide incentives to improve system efficiency through tools like performance-based incentives; various levels of decoupling; and variations of demand-based and time-of-use pricing options, such as critical peak pricing.

On May 4 the Commission voted 5-0 to adopt a motion by Vice Chairman Andrew G. Place to explore setting an alternative ratemaking based on the following first-order principles:

-- Policies must support the continued efficient use of all energy resources.

-- The evolution of a distributed energy environment requires substantial and well-targeted investment in distribution infrastructure.

-- Policies must encourage least-cost solutions, with cost recovery based on long-term cost causation.

-- Rate design should embrace, where feasible, the additional capabilities enabled by smart meter deployment.

In July, Gov. Wolf signed into law Act 58 which specifically authorizes the PUC to explore alternative ratemaking mechanisms for electric, natural gas, water and wastewater services.

The PA Environmental Council, Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance, Clean Air Council, PennFuture and other groups requested the extension of the comment deadline in order to fully consider the implications of Act 58 on alternative ratemaking and the proposed PUC policy.

Click Here for a copy of the Secretarial Letter for all the details.

Interested parties have until October 20 to file written comments referencing Docket No. M-2015-2518883 with the Public Utility Commission, Attn:  Secretary Rosemary Chiavetta, Commonwealth Keystone Building, Second Floor 400 North Street, Harrisburg, PA  17120.  Comments may also be filed electronically through the Commission’s e-File System.

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[Posted: August 14, 2018]

8/20/2018